Philadelphia Dance Projects

Watch the trailer for Little Ease [outside the box], a Motion Pictures selection

Check out the trailer for Little Ease [outside the box], one of the many films being shown at Motion Pictures Annual Shorts Program on Thursday, March 4. Little Ease is a new take on a classic piece of choreography conceived in 1985 by extreme action pioneer Elizabeth Streb.

In its current incarnation Ami Ipapo has been called to take on the box. As a performer she is concerned with how much to honor the past and how much of herself to bring to the piece. As a member of the current STREB company, Ami is keenly aware of the evolution of Pop Action and uniquely suited to exploring this in her role as performer.

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• Dance Talk
• Interview
• PDP Presents

Dance Talk: Q&A with Chris Yon

Leading up to Philadelphia Dance Projects Presents 2010, we’ll be featuring a fresh interview with a series choreographer or dancer, offering an inside peek into the creative development of the artist’s work. This week, we talk with Chris Yon, a Next Up artist.

As part of PDP Presents 2010, you will present the imaginatively titled new work The Very Unlikeliness (I’m Going to KILL You!). Is there a story behind this performance title? Chris Yon: There is a “flashback” sequence in this piece - a sequence that if this were a concept album, it would be the title song - an attempt at a Fred & Ginger type number. And this was the most romantic title I could think of…

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• Write on Dance

Write On Dance: Journal V4

This latest ‘07 entry for Write on Dance is about changes that two dancers have recently faced. One is told in the third person, the other in first person. Dancers changing cities; one with success, the other with disappointment. But both overcoming physical obstacles with emboldened spirit. The spirit that ultimately is their reservoir of strength may very well be the same that dance embodies in the first place.

Hunting For The Right Moves
By Lewis Whittington

Last spring, Pennsylvania Ballet soloist Phil Colucci danced in Val Caniparoli’s ‘Lambarena’ portraying one of the hunter-warriors. Few in the audience were aware that this was his symbolic company bow out- He had been pursuing fresh territory as a dancer for three years.

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• Write on Dance

Write On Dance: Journal V2

Dance In 2-D

edited by Lisa Kraus

For this edition of Write On Dance we wanted to tie in with PDP’s Motion Pictures series, the annual presentation of award-winning dance films and work by area videographers, and so invited the participation of makers and presenters of dance in 2D. Deirdre Towers, artistic director of the Dance Films Association, which partners with PDP in presenting Motion Pictures, is represented here in excerpts from a conversation with Lisa Kraus. Kim Arrow, on the Dance Faculty at Swarthmore College, weaves video with performance in his Quasimodo in the Outback. He offers a provocative essay examining the degrees of separation from live performance that video allows. And Tobin Rothlein, video artist, is co-artistic director of Miro Dance Theatre, along with Amanda Miller. Their mission involves creating “multi-media works which continually exhibit the integration of dance with video.” Tobin kept a web-log during a recent intensive period of work in Europe and graciously consented to let us reprint one “day in the life.”

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